


mmm whatcha say

by smoothmovebro



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Dirty Dancing References, ER visits, Established Relationship, FAILED autofellatio, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Language Kink, M/M, Minor Injuries, fuzzy handcuffs, teenage irresponsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 08:29:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11940282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smoothmovebro/pseuds/smoothmovebro
Summary: Rich and Jeremy do the Most™ to please their boyfriends but they end up in the ER.Jake is mortified while Michael is equal parts amused and Done.





	mmm whatcha say

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first bmc fic and first completed oneshot in a long time. truly this musical will save my creative career
> 
> you can find me on [tumblr](https://smoothmovebro.tumblr.com/)!

On Saturday morning at 03:07 am in Middle Borough Hospital, four teenaged boys rushed into the ER. They arrived in pairs, each with a potential patient. So that makes two injured boys with their respective… _companions_ walking into the room. No one else was in the ER.

The first pair was a lanky boy with floppy hair and his friend who has dark, swept back hair and is slightly more built. The lanky boy was limping, had his right hand conspicuously placed in front of his crotch, and was wearing fluffy handcuffs on his left wrist. The dark-haired friend couldn’t look at the lanky boy without coughing into his wrist to hide a giggle. The lanky boy noticed every time.

The second pair was a tall athletic boy and his significantly shorter friend with a red streak in his hair. Red Streak was walking normally, but was holding out his forearms and wincing occasionally. The tall boy looked down in concern almost every other second to check if Red Streak was doing okay.

Tall Boy walked up to the counter first and spoke on behalf of the group. “Hi, my boyfriend and my classmate need help.” He gestured at Red Streak and Lanky Boy. He gripped Red Streak by the shoulders and brought him forward to the counter. “Rich here sprained his wrists trying to…” Tall Boy blushed. “He sprained his wrists, I believe.” He looked at Lanky Boy. “Jeremy over there hurt his ankle because he fell off the bed.” Lanky Boy opened his mouth to speak, but his dark-haired friend gave him a pointed glance.

The nurse behind the counter looked at Jeremy and Rich over the tall boy’s shoulder. “I’ll need your name and his friend’s name as well,” she said as she pointed at the dark-haired friend.

“Oh, of course. I’m Jake Dillinger and that’s Michael Mell over there.”

“And the patients?”

Rich spoke up. “Richard Goranski.”

Jeremy limped forward to the counter. “Jeremy Heere.”

“I can see that,” the nurse said. “Your last name?”

“No, I meant,” he stuttered. He paused and continued. “My last name is Heere. H-E-E-R-E.” He spelt out his last name as the nurse typed away at her computer. “Thanks so much for helping us,” he said.

“Go take a seat over there,” the nurse said, pointing to the waiting area. “We’ll have a doctor ready to see you in a bit.”

The boys obediently sat in the waiting area. Jeremy and Michael sat close and conversed in hushed tones, while Rich and Jake sat two seats apart, with Jake facing away from his boyfriend. Rich made pleading faces and batted his eyelashes, but Jake paid no attention to him from sheer embarrassment that they had to go to the ER.

Shortly, a doctor walked into the waiting area and surveyed the group. “Richard Goranski and Jeremy Heere?”

Rich and Jeremy stood as abruptly as their bodies allowed them to. Jake and Michael also stood up. The doctor beckoned for the four of them to come into his office. Upon entering, they realised it was a little cramped for five people, so Jake and Rich stood by the mattress in the office while Jeremy and Michael took the seats in front of the desk.

“I’m Dr. Bartleby. Now…” He looked at Jeremy. “Can you tell me how your injuries happened?”

Jeremy shifted and fidgeted in his seat. The handcuff clinked against the chair with every move he made. His leg with the sprained ankle was raised up and resting on Michael’s lap. “W-well… You see, doc… It’s kind of a long story.”

“We have all night,” Dr. Bartleby replied.

“It… involves Rich and Jake too.”

Rich protested. “Don’t incriminate all of us!” he cried. Jake gripped Rich’s wrist, which made the shorter boy wince and shut up.

“As I was saying,” Jeremy said, “it all started with the party…”

* * *

Teenagers, red cups with questionable alcohol content, blasting music, and the high of finally graduating high school was an interesting mix. The graduating students of Middle Bourough High School informally organised a graduation after party, where they could go nuts without the supervision of their parents and the stiffness of the actual graduation ceremony. Once again, it was hosted by Jake Dillinger, since his parents were _still_ on the run after their brush with the criminal justice system. It was a free for all and everyone was either smashed or high as a kite.

Richard Goranski was definitely smashed and Jeremy Heere was definitely high as a kite. As intoxicated people, they flocked towards each other and began to converse.

“Yo, bro.” Rich slurred his words and occasionally hiccupped. He focuses a glazed eye at Jeremy. “So like… you’re with Michael now?”

Jeremy nods. Rich also nods.

“I thought you were still gittin’ gud with Christine but,” he shrugs, “maybe you’re totally bi too.”

“Christine and I parted on good terms. We’re okay. And I am totally bi,” Jeremy said. A burst of giggles erupted from him. “Bi… bye… by…” he muttered.

“No, seriously.” Rich gripped Jeremy by the shoulders and stared at him dead in the eye. “You love your boyfriend, right?”

Jeremy blinked slowly at the question. “Y-yeah, of course. He’s my best friend and my boyfriend. Of course, I’ll do anything for him.”

“Great. Let’s get straight to business.” Rich looked around the crowd, then leaned in to whisper up at Jeremy. “Have you… you know, hooked up?”

Jeremy flinched and stepped away from Rich. “Why would you-! What makes you-?! Who told you that you could ask that!!!” Rich’s serious gaze did not falter. Jeremy slumped. “Yes, we did.”

Rich whooped and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Great! Did you top? Did you bottom?” He gasped. “Or are you vers?”

Jeremy’s bemused expression explained enough to Rich, so he rephrased. “Did he put his dick inside you or did you put your dick inside him?”

The lanky boy blushed at the straightforward question and stuttered out his reply. “We never… _actually_ fucked. Like… we… we give each other blowjobs and that’s it.”

Rich audibly gasped. “You are missing out, bro!” He grabbed Jeremy’s wrist and started to lead him up the stairs. “I have just the thing to spice up your vanilla sex life.”

“Vanilla sex life?” Jeremy repeated.

“Man, it’s just better if I show you.” He continued leading Jeremy to the second floor and took him to a room. _Jake’s parents’ room,_ Jeremy remembered.

Rich went over to the bedside table and opened the drawer to rifle through its contents. He frowned at the drawer, then his face lit up as he lifted the corner and found what he was looking for. He conjured up a pair of pink, fluffy handcuffs. The fluff lined the inside of the handcuffs and if Jeremy concentrated, he could see red hearts dotting the handcuffs. He rummaged some more through the drawer’s false bottom and held the cuff’s keys in one hand. Jeremy gulped.

“What are you-?”

“Do you wanna impress Michael?” Rich probed. “Do you want your hours and hours of watching porn to be put to use? Do you wanna _excite_ your partner sexually?” He asked the last question with an inappropriate gyration of his hips, which made Jeremy cringe. “Then take these.”

Rich put the handcuffs and the key in Jeremy’s hands. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Cuff yourself to the bed, of course. Or him. It works either way.”

Since being led up the stairs, Jeremy’s high had significantly worn out. Now, he was looking at the cuffs in his hands with a sudden sobriety. “Oh my god,” he breathed. “I just let my short-statured former high school tormentor coax me into kinky sex with my boyfriend.”

“Kinky sex that you’ll _like_ , Jer-bear. And don’t call me short-statured as if that’ll hurt my feelings.” Once again, Rich clapped him on the shoulder. “Now go out there and fuck!” he said with a grand sweeping gesture.

Just as he said that, Jake walked into the room, catching Rich say the word ‘fuck’ with blatant enthusiasm and pride. He stared at his boyfriend and Jeremy, who was lamely holding the cuffs by his side. “Rich…” he said with a warning tone.

“It’s alright, baby!” Rich went up to Jake and started rubbing his arms affectionately. “I’m just letting Jer-bear borrow your parents’ kinky stuff because he and Michael haven’t even properly fucked yet.”

Jeremy and Jake wince at the overload of information. “Sure,” Jake said. “Just,” he said to Jeremy, “don’t ruin them, alright? I never know when my parents will be back.”

Jeremy nodded. “So, do I…?” he jerked a thumb behind him, letting the question trail off. When he saw that Rich and Jake are looking at each other Like That again, he took it as his cue to leave. He closed the door just before Jake picked up Rich to kiss him passionately.

He bunched up the cuffs and stuffed them in his pocket, along with the key. He took a deep breath and walked down to reimmerse himself in the party. In the crowd, he searched for dark, swept back hair and white headphones. He weaved through people expertly and found himself in the kitchen. Kids were milling about, chatting amicably and pouring each other drinks. While he was glad to be rid of the hellscape that scarred him for life, he was also melancholic about what will happen next. Will his classmates make it to college? Will they become dropouts and have miserable lives? It was painful to contemplate.

Michael popped up in Jeremy’s field of vision just before he went into one of his philosophical trances where he has a mini existential crisis. “Hey, babe!” Michael beamed. He was the designated driver for the both of them, and boy was Jeremy glad that one of them was sober enough to talk him out of this crazy idea Rich proposed.

“Hi,” Jeremy replied. He reached into his pocket, absentmindedly thumbing the fluff of the handcuffs. Michael sidled up beside him at the counter and they let the intimate contact wash over them. Michael saw that Jeremy was looking distant with a hand in his pocket.

“Is that a fluffy handcuff in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Michael says with a laugh. Without making eye contact, Jeremy reaches further into his pocket to reveal to Michael that there were, indeed, fluffy handcuffs in his pocket. Michael immediately covered the cuffs with his hands, making Jeremy put them back in his pocket again.

“Where did you get that?” he hissed at Jeremy. He led them both to a sofa that was just evacuated by a couple heavily making out.

“Rich gave them to me. It’s actually Jake’s parents’ cuffs.”

“Of course, they would be,” Michael muttered. “But why do you have that?”

Instead of a proper reply, Jeremy turned to Michael and leaned in for a kiss. They shifted so that Michael was on his back as Jeremy straddled his hips. They’ve been together for a while so it was easy to slip into a rhythm that they both enjoyed. Michael always thrilled every time Jeremy would nip at the flesh where neck met shoulder and Jeremy absolutely loved it when Michael slipped his hands under Jeremy’s shirt to rest his warms hands on the small of his back. As they did just that, verging on ignoring the rest of the world, they heard a loud whooping.

“Git gud, Jeremy!” Rich cried. Jeremy pulled away from Michael to sigh then glare at the offending cockblocker. Rich took the message and scampered away, probably to go back to Jake and continue to have bro sex.

“Want to take this somewhere more private?” Jeremy asked. Breathless, Michael nodded and they both went upstairs.

All the rooms except the one adjacent to Jake’s parents’ room were occupied. The two shrugged and entered. They took off their shoes and continued to lazily make out on the bed.

Michael rolled the both of them so that he was the one straddling Jeremy. The lanky boy grinned up at him at the change in position and they kissed again. Slowly, Michael coaxed Jeremy to take off his shirt as he followed suit. Now with bare chests, the touches are more intense and laced with a passion.

While distracting Jeremy with lewd sounds as he sucked hickeys onto the boy’s chest, Michael reached into Jeremy’s pocket and found the cuffs that he previously saw. While nicking from his boyfriend, he found the key and managed to take it out as well. Unfortunately, he only had enough cohesion and sleight of hand to keep the cuffs. He’ll look for the keys later.

With Jeremy too overcome with the feeling of getting frisky with Michael in a place that wasn’t either of their bedrooms, Michael was easily able to get Jeremy’s left arm above his head so he could cuff his wrist to the bed post. The distinct click of the cuffs locking into place made both of them stop.

“Did you just-?” Jeremy said. Michael looked at him, then at the bedpost.

“Yep,” Michael said, popping the ‘p’. Jeremy looked, wide eyed, at his cuffed wrist.

“This is actually what Rich told me to do with the handcuffs.” He shakes his wrist to test the give of the restraints. “I can see why the fluff needed to be there.”

“Safe, sane and consensual,” Michael recited. “Before we do anything, we gotta sort out a few things.” He looked at Jeremy’s cuffed wrist. “Like a way out if you want to stop.”

Jeremy sits up. “Rich gave me a key,” he said as he shuffled through his pocket with his free hand. His eyes widened and his face fell. “It’s not there.” He looked around the bed, desperate. “Oh my god, I can’t find it.”

Michael looked as well, trying to remember where it might have fallen out from Jeremy’s pocket. “Don’t worry, Jer, we’ll find it.”

The two boys shuffled around the bed, messing up the sheets to shake off the key. Jeremy couldn’t go far due to his restrained state but Michael looked where Jeremy couldn’t. Why did Jake’s household have to have so many sheets and pillows? Michael pushed aside their clothes and turned over some of the pillows in search for the key.

Suddenly, Jeremy cried out. “Michael, I found it!” Michael stopped and spun around to see Jeremy pointing at the key. It was on the edge of the bed, looking like it was going to fall over onto the floor any minute. The thing was that… it was on the other side from where Jeremy was. Michael held out a hand when he saw what Jeremy was trying to do.

“Babe, I don’t think you can reach it from there.” Jeremy was stretching out his leg so he could retrieve the key with his foot. He contorted his foot so his toes could latch onto the edge of the key. However, each movement from his foot caused the sheets to shift. This made the key inch closer and closer to the edge. The boy paid no attention to Michael rattling off warnings and expressions of concern. He finally found an angle that would definitely let him get that key when-

_Clink!_

The key fell over the edge onto the floor. Instead of getting out of bed to get it, Michael doubled over laughing. Jeremy squinted at his boyfriend.

“Help me get it, then!” Jeremy said. “And the mood is basically ruined,” he continued, swinging his legs over his side of the bed, “so I’ll get my shirt-”

As Jeremy stood to retrieve his clothes – which didn’t fall far from the bed – he felt his foot give from under him. That sudden loss of balance made him fall ungracefully onto the floor. Since he was still cuffed to the bed, he ended up in a heap save for his left arm sticking straight up above his head. He groaned helplessly.

“Oh my god, babe!” Michael quickly got the key from the floor on the other side of the bed before rushing to Jeremy. “I told you it wasn’t safe to stretch out your foot like that,” he scolded as he unlocked the cuffs. He coaxed Jeremy to sit up. He was about to ask him if he was okay until he heard the ruckus from Jake’s parents’ room.

“Bro, what the fuck!” they heard Jake shout.

Jeremy and Michael looked at each other with wide eyes. They grabbed their own shirts, put them on, and helped each other up. Jeremy had his arm around Michael’s shoulder and they hobbled out of the room to check on Rich and Jake. As they approached the room, they overheard their animated conversation.

“Help me put my pants back on!” Rich’s voice rang out.

“Hell, no!” Jake yelled back. “You did this to yourself!”

The two waited outside, certain that if they walked in now, they’d see a pantless Rich and they would get an image they can’t unsee. After a few minutes, Michael knocked on the door. “Hey, are you guys ok?” he asked.

A pause later and the door opens to reveal an embarrassed and slightly pissed off Jake. “I think Rich fucked up his wrists,” he said while jerking his head in Rich’s direction. The shorter boy was sitting on the edge of the bed, his forearms held out like he was a T-rex. His pants are back on, albeit somewhat ruffled.

Jake looked at Jeremy. “And what happened to you?” he asked.

“We might ask you the same thing,” Jeremy retorted. He gave the sternest look he could, then Jake relented.

“Fine. It pretty much started around the same time we heard you guys walk into the next room…”

* * *

“Jakey Dee!” Rich draped his small frame across Jake’s chest as they were lying in bed. Jake heard the muffled sounds of Jeremy and Michael’s voices enter the room adjacent: _his_ room. “Babe, pay attention to meee!”

“You’re drunk, I’m the host, and we’re only here so that you don’t…” Jake gestures vaguely, “break more furniture or something.”

“That was just one time, man! And you should really get more sturdy chairs. The ones you have are like… made of paper or something.”

Rich got off the bed and began pacing. Jake sat up and watched his boyfriend with slight curiosity. Pacing meant rants. Rants meant knowing more things about him that he wouldn’t tell in a million years if he were sobered up. Knowing more things about him meant that they’ve become closer than ever before.

They’ve been bros since sophomore year and Jake admitted that he never noticed Rich the year before. If it weren’t for the squip, they wouldn’t have known each other. On the other hand, if it weren’t for the squip, Jake wouldn’t have broken his legs, and Rich wouldn’t have set that fire in his house (he’s quite amazed at how quickly and quietly the repairs were made; Jenna had quite the unique network). It was an unspoken pact to never mention the squip again. It was such a… _messed up_ part of their lives. They didn’t think they’ll ever be able to fully get over the time they had a supercomputer in their heads. Rich, especially, because he had that thing for almost a full year. Jake often wondered what went on in Rich’s head post-squip.

“Have I told you that thing?” Rich asked. He always began his rants with a question, so Jake perked up and shook his head no.

“There are many things to be told, bro,” Jake replied. He knew that dating meant you could call each other sappy nicknames like ‘sugar’ or ‘babe’, but in Jake’s eyes, him and Rich dating was just a… small detail. He insisted on calling his boyfriend ‘bro’ because nicknames like ‘honey’ or ‘sweetie’ entailed a certain romantic dynamic. He knew for sure that their relationship is something a lot deeper and personal. Therefore, to romantically call Rich ‘bro’ already implies a different kind of intimacy. Rich never fully understood that logic but went along with it anyway, because that’s what boyfriends do.

“You know, that…” Rich snapped his fingers, searching for the word, “That thing where I did gymnastics.”

“You did gymnastics? When?”

The pacing became faster and more excited. Rich’s face lit up and he had a smile that was so radiant Jake could die right then and there and he’d be happy. “I was really young! Like, summer before third grade!” He continued to explain how he was inspired by the 2008 Olympics. The flips and stretches mesmerised his tiny eight-year old self. Afterwards, he asked his parents if he could sign up to some classes. They agreed in the same way that parents enabling their child’s fleeting hobbies do. He was the only boy in his class but he didn’t care. He continued doing those jumps and flips with grace, dedication, and finesse. He was even going to compete on a state level.

That is, until things got rough at home.

One day, after Rich came home from practice, his dad was sitting on the couch with a sombre look on his face. “Don’t go to your next one,” he said. Rich stared wide eyed at the broken man and asked why. “Because we…” his father rubbed his eyes, “because we don’t have enough money to keep on paying, okay?” When little Rich’s eyes began to well up, his father got up from the couch to approach his son, get on his knees, and hug him tightly. “I know, I know. You worked real hard, but… Things are happening and sometimes we have to let go of some of the stuff we care about a lot.”

Even without formal training, Rich kept on honing his skills until freshman year of high school. That’s when the squip came in. **You’ll look effeminate and unmanly** , it said. So Rich stopped for a year. Then, after the whole Halloween incident – after he got his squip out – he dared himself to try out the few things he remembered from his gymnastics days, just to see if he still got it.

Rich’s rant died down to silence. Now that he was thinking about that part of his life again, he went dead quiet. He stopped pacing and sat on the edge of the bed across from Jake.

Jake cleared his throat. “No wonder you’re so short,” he joked. “Y’know, because loads of gymnasts are short and-”

The rest of his sentence got cut off with his boyfriend tackling him with all the might his five-foot-five-inches body could muster. Play fighting was a habit between them. It was fond rough housing, a chance to let out teenage aggression without actually hurting anyone. It was also their version of foreplay, but that’s a different story entirely.

“I can prove it!” Rich said as he got Jake into a gripping choke hold. The taller boy tapped out and Rich let go so he could get off the bed. With a flourish of his hand, Rich sunk to the floor in the neatest split Jake had seen someone do. His face betrayed the ease of the action.

“Don’t your balls hurt?” Jake asked from above.

“No,” Rich said in a high-pitched voice. He grimaced and folded his legs so he was sitting cross-legged on the floor. “I still need to work on that.”

“Well if you’re so _flexible_ ,” Jake said in a teasing tone, “does that mean you can suck your own dick?”

The silence that followed could mean anything. A challenge, a moment of revelation, a really weird joke, or a combination of all three. Whatever it was, Rich did something that they would later come to regret: he nodded.

“Yeah, totally!” he drawled. “I can do it right now!”

Jake’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, bro, no. I meant it as a joke, I didn’t think-”

Already too late, Jake watched on as Rich divested himself from his pants and underwear and stood up to stretch. The contrast of being naked from the waist down irked Jake but he kept watching the same way he would watch a car crash: horrified but unable to look away. He was now genuinely curious if Rich could pull it off.

“It’s just a matter of being supple, right?” Rich said with a cocky grin. “I think my back can handle it.”

He sat back down on the floor and stretched his legs by reaching for his toes. Several repetitions of this and Rich huffed. It was a clear indicator that he really was going to do it.

With a final deep breath, Rich leaned back and raised both his legs over his head until his knees were touching his forehead. He lifted his hips during the process so that his feet reached further and further behind him. Slowly, he let his thighs part so his legs were in a diamond shape. While pushing his hips further backwards, he planted his toes on the ground for grounding as he lifted his head to get a better reach. In this position, if he stuck out his tongue far enough, he would barely graze the tip of his cock. That wasn’t enough to actually get some length in.

Jake watched, baffled and entranced. Rich made it look easy, yet the furrow in his brow showed that it was anything but. He was almost rooting for Rich until the other boy sighed and rolled forward so he was sitting up again.

“I overestimated myself,” Rich muttered to himself. Jake snickered at the double entendre but Rich was too focused to notice. He paced around the room again, this time without underwear, trying to find another angle.

Rich stopped in front of a wall and stared at it. He examined the paint and the sturdiness of it by putting a hand on it. After letting it slide down the wall a few inches, he stepped back and nodded.

“Oh no.” He wasn’t sure why he said it, but Jake already had a bad feeling about this.

“Nah, babe, I’ll definitely get it this time.” Without another word, Rich planted his hands on the ground and did a handstand against the wall. He moved closer to the wall so his legs were flush against it, then slowly brought them closer to himself like he did on the floor. While Jake would admit that this approach stood a more solid chance, he saw the dangerous tremor beginning to form in Rich’s forearms. The strain of holding his weight and the sudden intense use of the muscles there should have been warning signs that it wasn’t going to end well.

“Hey, I think you should be careful,” Jake said. “You might-”

Rich gasped when he felt his weight become unbalanced. He didn’t anticipate how the angle of his legs would affect how he had to balance his weight on his hands. Once he lost control of one thing, it all went stumbling, quite literally. His knees hit the floor with a hard thud, he landed on his shoulder on an unfortunate angle, and his hands couldn’t support him adequately when he tried to stand up.

Jake heard a faint thud as well coming from the other room but he was focusing on Rich.

“Bro, what the fuck!” he cried. He rushed to Rich’s side and helped him sit up. Rich was wincing and rubbing at his shoulder.

“Ah, man, I’m getting rusty.” When he clenched his hand to massage at his shoulder, he hissed. He looked at his wrist and said, “Yeah… I think I fucked up my wrists…”

They looked at Rich’s hands, which seemed alright. When Jake took Rich’s hand in his to inspect the damage, Rich’s wincing was a good indicator that yeah, it was pretty bad.

“Help me put my pants back on!” Rich’s voice suddenly took on a high volume. Panic was settling in. He can’t have sprained wrists. How’s he going to have sexy times with Jake? How’s he going to function on a daily basis?

“Hell, no!” Jake yelled back. “You did this to yourself!” He helped anyway by finding Rich’s clothes and throwing them in the other boy’s direction so he could help himself. He pressed an ear against the wall leading to the room where he heard the thud and made out the faint click of a door shutting. Jake sighed. _Another couple who just fucked on his bed… again…_

He looked back at Rich to check how he was doing. The boy managed to pull on his jeans half-way through, making him look like a warped merman. Jake shook his head and thumped it against the wall, still disbelieving of what just happened.

He heard knocking on the door. Michael’s concerned voice came through. “Hey, are you guys ok?”

Jake hissed at Rich to hurry up. The shorter boy managed to fully put on his jeans, although he buttoned it a little funny and the creases looked unusual when he stood up. It was good enough.

Jake opened the door to find Jeremy and Michael standing in front of him. Their shirts looked more ruffled than they did since he last saw them. Jeremy had an arm around Michael’s shoulder and he saw that he was wearing fluffy handcuffs on his left wrist.

Focusing on the people in front of him, Jake began to explain. “I think Rich fucked up his wrists,” he said while jerking his head in Rich’s direction. The shorter boy was now sitting on the edge of the bed, his forearms held out like he was a T-rex.

Jake looked up and down at Jeremy. “And what happened to you?” he asked.

“We might ask you the same thing,” Jeremy retorted. He gave the sternest look he could, then Jake relented.

“Fine. It pretty much started around the same time we heard you guys walk into the next room…” He explained the whole thing, then was met with gaping stares.

“And we thought _we_ were embarrassing,” Michael said. He explained how his night unfolded with Jeremy and the handcuffs. Jake responded the same way Michael did when it happened: doubling over, laughing, while ignoring his boyfriend’s cries for help.

“Hey, tall ass!” Rich called out. “I’m a fricking T-rex over here. Help me up!” Jake excused himself as he escorted Rich out of the room.

With all four of them in the hallway, Jeremy cleared his throat. “So…” he stretched out the word and also stretched out the awkwardness of the night. “To the ER?” he proposed.

* * *

Dr. Bartleby leaned back in his chair and surveyed the four boys in front of him. He fondly shook his head. “Kids these days…” He cleared his throat and sat up to regard Jeremy. “We’ll have a look at you first,” he said. “Get rid of the handcuffs, though. It’s… it’s seen enough.”

Michael dutifully took out the key to unlock the cuffs from Jeremy. He pocketed those and walked over to Dr. Bartleby as he urged Jeremy to sit on the bed. Rich and Jake stepped aside and essentially switched places, now with them sitting on the chairs.

Dr. Bartleby instructed Jeremy to take off his shoes. After nudging Jeremy’s foot this way and that, he made the judgment that he’ll need to be on crutches.

“It’ll take about two weeks,” he explained.

Jeremy sputtered. “Two weeks?! That’s like… ten rehearsals! How am I gonna get to class? What should I say to the other kids? What if they all find out what really happened-”

_“Puyat na nga tayong lahat, nagrereklamo ka pa!”_

All heads turned toward Michael, who cowered into his hoodie after his outburst. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just tired…”

Jeremy will have to ask what that meant. He kinda found it… hot that Michael slipped into Tagalog when he gets mad. Oh god, Michael would have to find that out soon. Oh god, Jeremy is fucked…

He took a deep breath and placed his hands strategically on his lap. “Okay, I’ll do it,” Jeremy told Dr. Bartleby. The doctor nodded and requested for them to wait as he got the materials.

Now with the lone adult gone, Michael sidled up beside Jeremy. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s a really long night and everything was already going fuzzy then with you freaking out, it all just-”

The boy stopped when he looked down at Jeremy’s hands. Michael looked up and held a stern gaze with his boyfriend. “Jeremiah Heere,” he purred, “are you having an _erection_ right now?”

Jeremy blushed and looked away while Rich cackled. “Holy shit! Jer-bear is a kinky fuck!”

“Shut up, Rich! I’m not the one who sprained his wrists trying to suck his own dick!”

“And I’m not the one who doesn’t wanna go beyond blowjobs with his boyfriend because he’s too scared of sex!”

Michael looked at Jeremy with a soft smile. “Is that…?” Hesitantly, the lanky boy nodded. His small frame made the affirmation sweeter and heartfelt. He was about to bring him closer for a hug but Dr. Bartleby re-entered the room with casts, crutches, and braces.

Dr. Bartleby tossed the braces in Jake’s direction. “These are for Rich. I’ll teach you how to put them on once I’m done with Jeremy.” Jake peered at the curiously shaped hand braces. They resembled half-completed sci-fi gauntlets with the blasters in them. He gave one of them to Rich, who apparently had the same idea when he placed it over his forearm and started making blaster noises.

Michael was holding Jeremy’s crutches and already adjusting them to his height while the other boy got his cast fitted. Once the brace was over his foot and shin, Jeremy took his crutches from Michael. He followed Dr. Bartleby’s instructions on how to walk with crutches. He hobbled around the room with shaky balance until he got the hang of it. Then, the doctor sat behind his desk and asked Rich to place his forearms on the table as he explained to him how to wear the braces.

“Since you sprained both your wrists, you’ll need help from your partner to put on the brace for your dominant hand.” Rich and Jake both nod, intently listening. Once they understood the instructions, Jake asked a few questions to fully sort out the whole thing. Jake nods in satisfaction and gingerly takes Rich’s hands in his own. He brings them up to his lips so he could kiss Rich’s fingers. The shorter boy made a disgusted face but it quickly turned into a shy smile.

“Thank you so much again,” Michael called out as they all walk out from the ER. He walks slowly with Jeremy as Jake and Rich are up ahead of them walking towards the car. He leans in to Jeremy.

“About the thing Rich said about you…” he started. Jeremy groaned.

“Look, I wasn’t gonna spring on you the whole sex talk right away. I just thought…”

“Take it slow?” Michael supplied.

“Yeah! That!” Jeremy pouted and glanced away briefly. “I didn’t know if you wanted that kind of thing yet.”

Michael laughed. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now,” he interrupted himself with a yawn, “I think bro homo over there are having a moment.” He pointed at Rich and Jake who were several feet apart and calling out to each other.

“You ready?” Jake yelled.

“Yeah!” Rich replied.

The shorter boy ran full speed at Jake, who held him by the waist just in time to lift him up above his head with ease. Rich spread out his arms and legs. It was a perfect imitation of that scene in “Dirty Dancing”, only if Johnny had dark spiky hair and Frances had a red streak going through her hair.

Michael whipped out his phone just in time to film the two. “IIII haaaaddd! The time of my liiiiifeeee! And I neeeeverrr felt this way be-fore!” He sang their background music for them until Jake put Rich down. They laughed breathlessly, high on joy and adrenaline.

“And I swear, it’s the truuuuth.” Michael turned around to see Jeremy singing along. He grinned.

“And I owe it all to youuuu,” they both sang.

“Hey, lovebirds!” Rich said. He was already in the front seat with Jake as the driver. “Get in. We’re all going home.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **Translation:**  
>  _"Puyat na nga tayong lahat, nagrereklamo ka pa!"_ \- "We're all tired and sleep-deprived, and you have the nerve to complain!"
> 
> how could i ever pass up the opportunity to indulge myself by making one of my favourite characters speak my native language :P
> 
> comments and kudos are greatly appreciated ^~^ it's how i know that people like what i write and it's what keeps me motivated to write
> 
> you can find me on [tumblr](https://smoothmovebro.tumblr.com/)!


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